In many of the Elisha stories the king in the story is not identified. While many assume that the anonymous king is Yehoram, Ahav's son, because of the sequence of the chapters, the good relationship between Elisha and the king in some of the stories and the ease in which Aram lays seige to Shomron indicate that the kings in the story belong to Yehu's dynasty. Two possible explanations are offered as to the non-chronological order of the Elisha's stories.

Yehoram, King of Yehuda, strays from the path of Yehoshafat his father and adopts the path of the House of Ahav, of which his wife Atalya is a daughter. Besides the spiritual turmoil that his rule brings, Yehoram murders all of his brothers who he views as a threat to his rule and loses control over areas that have been under the rule of Yehuda since David's reign. How does Eliyahu send Yehoram a castigating letter long after his disappearance?

Courtesy of the Virtual Beit Midrash, Yeshivat Har Etzion